Approaching Meniere's Disease Positively.

Meniere’s Disease and Driving

This was one of the more interesting and thought provoking questions that we have gotten. Some days, David’s Meniere’s disease episodes were really frightening for him and for us, but we had forgotten that for a while, he was not even able to drive. This question brought back a flood of memories about some of his worst days.

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I have just been told that a member of my family has been informed by his doctor that he most likely has Meniere’s disease. Not only is he in his early 30s, he is also going to be a father very soon. Thank you for your website. I have learned some valuable information.

I have not read the entire site so maybe you address this question and I just have not seen it, but I was wondering how Meniere’s disease affects one’s ability to drive? It seems like driving would be very dangerous if you were to have a sudden attack of Meniere’s disease. Please answer or direct me to the correct section of your website to find the answer to this question.

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Encourage him to see this ONLY as balance and or haring symptoms. As soon as you put this name to these symptoms, doctors tell you there is little hope. They do not look for the cause….that is something he would have to.

When anyone is that age, I encourage them to look at any cosmetics INCLUDING skin care such as acne preparations or bottled water….there are many many chemicals including drugs that give these symptoms.

I will also add that he might be suffering from some stress or anxiety about being a father if this is his first child. That may also be a factor.

This is different for all people…it all depends on the cause and how it affects a person. If it’s a mild Meniere’s disease episode, then driving doesn’t seem to be a problem….but the challenge is that until you find the cause and fix it or at least know what you are dealing with, you have no control.

You really don’t know when the next episode will come. I caution people from sharing a lot of this information with their doctors until they know what the doctor will do. Some doctors will immediately call the motor vehicle department and report them and the license is put on hold or revoked altogether… I have seen this too many times not to caution people…so it’s a fine line between getting help and testing and being open.

My son, Bruce, has written something for me about David having a Meniere’s disease attack that led to a drop attack while he was driving.

My father has had one Meniere’s disease drop attack while he was driving and he had one very bad vertigo attack that almost caused him to pass out. He also has trouble turning his head because that seems to cause some vertigo or dizziness when he tries to shoulder check. I was with him one afternoon when we were merging onto a highway. I did not think anything was wrong, but I did see the very large semi-tractor and trailer beside us as we were about to merge.

I just assumed that my father had seen this as well, because it was rather large, loud and hard to miss. At that moment, my father asked me if I could see anything to his left because he could not turn his head. I told him about the now very large truck beside him and he slowed down to let it past and we managed to merge onto the highway without any more surprises. This was really the first time that I became aware of how my father’s Meniere’s disease was really affecting his life.

The Meniere’s disease drop attack that my father had was while he was taking his car to a friend’s garage to get an oil change. He was driving down the road and the next thing he was aware of was waking up in the middle of the road to people honking their horns at him. He had no idea what had happened, he never had any warning of the attack. It just happened.

The vertigo attack was very bad, but luckily it was not a full drop attack. My father somehow felt a Meniere’s disease attack coming on and he was able to pull off to the side of the road before he passed out. He had to sleep off the rest of the attack before he could drive again. He knew it was a bad idea, but he did not have a choice because of where he was.

It took many years, several doctors and a lot of different drugs and remedies, but eventually my father was able to get his life back again. He has been virtually free of his Meniere’s disease symptoms for many years now. If you would like to know how David and numerous others have managed to get their lives back, we would be happy to share this with you. Please click here and we will be happy to talk with you and send you what we finally found that worked.